STRINGS CAMP <3

I once heard a saying that "There's nothing better than a camp, where everyone bathes in the same toilet and sleeps under the same roof, to bond a group of people." (Okay I made some of that up but the meaning's there!) I experienced this at OBS, and I experienced it at Strings camp in the past two days again (: It's such a wonderful feeling.


So, on Day 1, 26th of November!:

Woke up early to report by 8 for prepping and stuff (: We played some funny games like the tuki tuki one until time was up, and we started briefing! Oh I think at this time Kay Yi gave out song sheets to the icyl theme song and we sat around in a circle and sang while hui yi played the piano (: I like the song, it gives a warm fuzzy feeling. We were divided into groups, A, B, C and D and I was in Group B! SIX in the city yeah :D together with zerline, clarisse, wingshan, yenjee and wangmeng (who didn't come D:). We attempted to come up with a group cheer but it didn't really materialise in the end heh. Then it was Captain's Ball! We played in Round Robin format with zerline's rugby and waterpolo balls HAHA. The rugby ball was being Unpredictable and bounced everywhere and kept hitting people randomly when we were in a circle haha. But Captain's Ball was quite fun even though in some games we were playing against the odds (5 agst 6) and i got a cut and the sun was hot :D



Then it was Acapella challenge! I didn't really have high expectations for the performances that the groups will put up since in mep camp we all were briefed for super long and had pros to teach us but i loved everyone's performances! They were all so unique (: My group chose Jingle Bells and started writing the arrangement soon after we choped the keyboard room. Haha I was trying to draw on as much of the skills i learnt at mep camp as possible. Then after writing the arrangement we did the choreo! Heehee we had all sorts of funny ideas but finally settled on bobbing up and down for the intro :D I think our choreo was quite cute cos we had all these little actions like a choo-choo train thing and Clarisse's post at the ending was epic. And we managed to perform without score and were v synchro! So yay us (: The rest were great too, Group A sang Somewhere Out There and their choreo had huazhen and kayyi being a couple. The last scene was so funny when everyone got it at the same time, basically they formed half a heart each and walked towards each other and eventually joined to form a heart awwww. Group C sang Bad Day and was the only group who beatboxed! and like Ms. Chan said theirs was really like a music video and wingyan's acting was so convincing xD Then Group D sang Silent Night! In this super high register and yueling was singing cool running arpeggios (:



Then we had lunch! Which was a Macs burger that I didn't finish. After that was AUGUST RUSH! (: I'd been wanting to watch it for sooo long, and finallyyyyy! Even though the storyline wasn't very plausible I think the execution and acting was excellent, Freddie Highmore! And the music too; Elgar's cello concerto! I think August's composition at the end was very creative and it's such genius how he incorporates the sounds of everyday life into his rhapsody. But most importantly for me I was inspired by how the movie mentioned that sometimes we just have to believe in music, even when the odds are stacked against us. And of course how our music will really touch others if we listen to, and connect with one another (: There's this line the movie is famous for: Music is everywhere; you just have to listen. Even though it may be a little overused, I still believe in it (:



After that was dinner and bathing! Kay Yi, huiyi, clarisse, andrea and I were in the same toilet and I suddenly felt like singing Dedication (: Haha afterwards combined was a bit tiring, but we learned new songs like YMCA and groovy strings for fun haha. THEN IT WAS NIGHTWALK. I sort of knew there was some sort of conspiracy going on in functions when they said zerline and huiyi went missing, but it dragged really long and Ms. Ku looked worried and Ms. Chan disappeared so I was wavering a bit in my belief. Okay I can't believe i never saw them grinning! Anw I was with June for nightwalk :D Yay we weren't scared cos we held hands and laughed a lot when they kept doing funny things to us. Like when someone pulled my hair i was like "Eh you want to pull my hair can but don't pull out the hairtie cos I only have one!" Haha despite knowing roughly where the route was I kept banging into pillars and stumbling down steps. But it was quite fun even though I don't like being blindfolded (: Yay thanks June!



Okay we waited a long long time before we finally went to J Block shared classroom to sleeep. [THEN I fulfilled my lifelong ambition of running on the rg track at/ past midnight :D] By then it was past 12.30 am so I was really tired but couldn't fall asleep cos we wanted to do a debrief. But in the end when it was past 1 I decided to go to sleep and so missed Ms. Ku and Ms. Chan's nightwalks D: D: D: And I was sleeping so fitfully I didn't realise huazhen was secretly (okay not really, with FLASH) taking photos of me when I was asleep D:



Next, Day 2, 27th of November!:


Woke up at four different times; at 6 plus when someone's alarm clock started ringing, at 7 when wy's alarm clock rang, at 7.22 when I thought I was late for set-up, and at 8.15 when huiying woke me up. Washed up blahblah then it was prep for Obstacle Course! 'Twas really fun, both watching, being a station master and semi-participating. There were 5 stations: The apple station, Food station, the taking pictures station, Flour-Coins station and my music station (: I think every group worked really well together and everyone ate the correct apple! I'm still very amused by the FMRAHLU (harmful) and poisonous apples cos I was trying to figure out what the clue meant and then voila huazhen enlightened me! Haha the food wasn't so gross after all, except the coke with wasabi :/ then the flour game! Where the blindfolded person from each team had to pick up coins amounting to $10 from the expired flour. Haha I think my station was where everyone took the longest time, partially because they couldn't really hear, esp. when band was doing drills/ having sectionals. But my group was really fast at this station 'cos Clarisse could get almost everything! Like my first track, Cosy in the Rocket from Grey's, was meant to be ulu but she got in. Haha Hard to Live in the City from GG was funny 'cos my group was listening to the track and "it's hard to live...hard to live in the city" kept being repeated so zerline was like, Hard to Live in the City? Haha :D THEN after every group finished me, hz and huiying decided to play ourselves! So we each ate a bit of the "poisonous" apple and hz ate the food and we did the flour station :D


Okay after everything was over, there was a moment of impulse and it turned out to be quite a messy situation ><>

Lanabel and others tapao-ed Chicken Rice from Far East for us, for lunch, and after that it was combined (: We pracced a little of eine kleine and then broke off into our little groups for CCAO. Being the only v1 in my group is quite bad i think i'm going to embarrass myself + group D: D: with my horrid intonation sigh. but nvm we'll all rehearse alot and work vvv hard!

After combined while waiting for the video that hy and hz made to load, we played murderer and Cat and Mouse! Cat and Mouse was really really funny, like how the Mouse would purposely move v slowly and then later there'll be mass panic and screaming when the Cat gets really close hahaha. It was super funny when the Cat caught the Mouse when it was Clarisse's turn, twice, so she had to do a forfeit and sing a bim song xD Then Group B went to watch the video! It was nice rewatching all the performances (: After we finished the video there was debrief, and we announced the results for the various games. My group won Obstacle course! And acapella challenge, together with the group that sang silent night :D And all of us got delicious lemon biscuits that maggie bought yay.

On the whole, this camp exceeded my expectations by a whole lot - not because I didn't think the exco was capable enough, but because this was our first major event, not counting Sec 4 farewell. I think that all the red tape we had to get around, and all the times of editing the camp proposal was more than worth it (: I don't know about the others but personally, I feel very encouraged by the enthusiasm of every member for this camp. It's sort of like a coming-of-age, like that day when we were having combined I told lanabel that the cellists in her batch have 'come of age'; watching juniors rise up to the occasion and even the little sec-twos-to-be shining in their own way. I know for sure that if we keep this spirit up, all our goals for next year are definitely attainable (:

So thank you, Ms. Chan who stayed over and helped us with so many things, Ms. Ku who stayed over too in spite of her busy schedule, functions comm and hy and hz for all the sweat and tears put into this (we did it!), and thank you everyone who came for the great memories. I hope all of you had as much fun as I did.